Bag's Rants

Another warning on Pensions. Time for a change?

Seems that the Pension watchdog is warning that 300 schemes are in danger of collapse. Read more here. I'm now wondering if I really should be contributing to any pension scheme at all now it appears that there as so many with problems.

I know that the tax raid by our beloved leaders did not help and I know that it has been a particularly lean few years, amazingly enough, due to the current economy run by the same beloved leaders. I think I see a pattern. It has become apparent that they can't run their party finances, they can't manage their personal finances and yet we expect them to run a country. With a bit of luck the Labour party will have no funds to put forward the faithful when it comes up to the elections. Would that not be funny? Unfortunately, knowing how above board they are they would then likely dip, legally or illegally, into state funding to pay for it. But I digress.

Anyway, it does concern me that there are so many schemes under threat. No wonder they are looking at easing the potential burden on the Pension Protection Fund. It looks like company schemes are not the safe havens that they need to be. They may have been in the past but not now. What can we do? I for one don't want to keep putting money away and yet be no better off when I retire than someone who does not. On the other hand, if I don't then I can expect to have a poorly funded retirement.

I think we should expect our government to keep their fingers out of the pensions pot. Plus they should put back what they have stolen and put legislation in place to ensure that they are managed and monitored to ensure minimal fraud and that they are managed correctly. In addition there should be guarantees on what comes out of these funds depending on what you put in. Then make them transportable so that if your company scheme isn't going so well you can move the capital to somewhere else but still keep the company component going in.

I'm seriously considering stopping paying into my pension scheme and buying property. Something I can sell when I retire and get a lump sum. May be a one off payment but with my existing pension as regular, albeit small, payments it should keep me going. In reality that's probably a crap idea but I'm looking at it now as well as other options. There are a few interesting sites out there with lots of advice. I particularly like The Motley Fool for financial information and advice.

The way this is going I'll have to move abroad to make my pension worthwhile. Cambodia or somewhere where we can live on £10 a week.

posted by Bag @ 4:51 pm